Conventional public telephones or pay phones provide access to the public switched telephone network through the deposit of coins, accessing of an operator, or automated usage of a credit card. Documentary directories have been customarily provided at the site of the pay stations but are increasingly ineffective due to the expansion of the volume of directory information necessary to be provided and due to vandalism which rapidly reduces the provided documentary information to a virtually unusable state. One proposed solution to this problem which has been at least partially implemented in at least one European country is the provision at the site of each public telephone station of an electronic directory database, display screen and controls for providing the phone user with an electronically accessible directory.
Other proposals have been made for the provision of console type public telephone stations in kiosk or other form for providing to the public a variety of data and mechanisms for utilizing such data. One such proposal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,849 issued Jan. 19, 1988, to Kou Tayama. The Tayama patent describes several embodiments of a console type display apparatus which may be installed in or in front of a railroad station to display hotel information. The device is suitable for desk or wall mounting or may be provided in kiosk form. A display screen is provided for displaying information in response to actuation of an operating switch. A card or coin insert slot is provided along with a search switch. The unit is provided with a library of various video disks which may be selected for display. The operation of the device is as follows:
Video disks containing information regarding predetermined hotels are provided in the video disk library in a display/memory device. When power is provided the information is successively or seriatim displayed on the screen initially in outline form without details. A desired display of information may be selected by operating numeral keys to select, for example, hotel information, motion picture theater information, or the like. After the type of information is selected, a search switch is operated to cause display information to be fast fed over the screen at intervals of 5 seconds, for example. When information on a desired hotel is displayed the search key is released. As a result detailed information regarding that hotel is successively displayed. At the same time a voice commercial is produced from a speaker. In this case the last frame is displayed for a longer period such as 10 seconds.
When the user is satisfied with the detailed information, he/she unhooks the handset, inserts a magnetic card or a coin into the card insert section, and depresses the call switch. As a result the dial number corresponding to the displayed information is automatically searched from a dial number memory bank in the device and a telephone circuit to the telephone set in the hotel is established. Before the user's speech starts, the destination hotel is informed of the location of the information display apparatus as the source of call in synthesized voice, for instance, "New York", which is reproduced from data stored in a voice synthesis unit in the device.
If the user does not desire to make a reservation he/she may wait for ten seconds or depress the search switch again. As a result the display of further outline hotel information is resumed.
The procedure for operating the device is described in an announcement to the user from the speaker. This is in addition to the procedure for operation described in an information plate attached to the unit. For example, when the logic control determines that the search is for a hotel, it may play a prompt such as "Keep search button depressed until your favorite hotel is displayed."
While installations of the type proposed in the Tayama patent are capable of providing directory and other services they involve elaborate and costly auxiliary installations at existing public coin telephones. It is a purpose of the present invention to supply in a cost efficient and extremely versatile manner varied information at public pay telephone stations.